The present invention relates to collection canisters designed for collecting, retaining and transporting medical fluids collected in surgical procedures. More particularly, the present invention relates to a new and improved blow molded fluid collection canister which, despite its thin wall thickness, can withstand internal vacuums of up to 1.0 atmosphere of vacuum (or about 14.69 psi) without buckling or inwardly collapsing.
Medical collection canisters have been used to collect and transport contaminated fluids generated in surgeries and other medical procedures. These prior art containers generally include open top buckets which collect fluids by gravity flow and vacuum canisters with portals which collect fluids from collection devices by applying a vacuum to one of the portals.
Open top buckets have been used to collect contaminated fluids from fluid collection devices in which the fluid flows from the collection devices to the bucket primarily due to the force of gravity. However, open top buckets pose serious health hazards because objects can fall into the bucket and splash the medical fluids on health care personnel. Open top buckets are difficult to transport and are susceptible to spilling. In addition, open top buckets are not sealed and are therefore unable to collect fluids by vacuum.
Prior art vacuum canisters have not been satisfactory, primarily because they have generally been too small for use in all medical procedures. Prior art vacuum canisters typically contain between 800 and 3,000 cubic centimeters of fluid. Many surgical procedures use large quantities of irrigation fluids, such as orthoscopic and cystoscopic surgery. These types of surgery have been known to utilize an amount of irrigation fluid significantly in excess of 3,000 cc. Furthermore, many extended surgical procedures such as liposuction, organ harvesting, organ transplantation, and open heart surgery produce significantly more than 3,000 cc of contaminated body fluids. Accordingly, numerous prior art vacuum canisters were required in many surgical procedures. These canisters are painstakingly connected in series and/or demand an extensive amount of attention by healthcare personnel. This creates the need for additional healthcare personnel in the operating room or divides the attention of existing healthcare personnel. Surgical procedures may be frequently interrupted to change the vacuum canisters. These interruptions may extend the length of the procedure which is decidedly disadvantageous to the patient.
Because of these shortcomings, collection systems capable of collecting larger volumes of fluid are required which do not involve the need for tandem setups, e.g. the hook up of several similar smaller containers to one vacuum source and one suction tubing end piece. Moreover, more cost effective manufacturing for large canisters is required. The only currently available large volume collection canisters capable of collecting volumes significantly larger than three liters are injection molded and have thick walls to prevent the canister from collapsing during use. The surface area of these prior art injection molded bucket canisters is relatively large and, the force which is directly proportional to the surface area, will increase significantly on the outside of the canister when a vacuum or negative pressure is pulled on the inside of the canister. The thick walled designs have an undesirably high material cost for their manufacture.
At present, the desire for high performance, low cost, large volume collection canisters for use with vacuum collection systems in medical procedures remains unsatisfied.